Window regulator



Aug. 2, 1966 R. P. SMITH WINDOW REGULATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 16, 1964 INVENTOR RAYMOND P. SMITH A 7' TORNEVS Aug- 2, 1966 R. P. SMITH 3,264,032

WINDOW REGULATOR Filed Sept. 16, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.3

b 44 7 \JAA RAYMOND P. SMITH INVENTOR T TORNEVS United States Patent 3,264,032 WINDOW REGULATOR Raymond P. Smith, Huntington Woods, Mich, asslgnor to Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 396,889 4 Claims. (Cl. 49375) This invention relates to window regulator mechanisms and is particularly concerned with mechanisms for holding vehicle body windows in selective partially or fully raised positions.

On many vehicles using relatively small body shells, whether they be high-powered sports cars or low-powered economy cars, the body doors have a relatively thin cross section. That is, the distance between the outer skin or panel and the inner panel frequently is only great enough to accommodate a window and its encompassing frame. There is insufficient room for a conventional gear sector type window regulator mechanism whether it be hand crank or power operated. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple window regulator mechanism of thin cross sectional width for holding the window in selective partially or fully raised positions.

The present window regulator mechanism comprises an upstanding guide track which is centrally mounted within the door structure. A carriage device attached to the lower edge of the window glass frame has rolling engagement with the side edges of the track. The carriage device carries a simple spring loaded pawl which is engageable with anyone of a series of ratchet teeth can ri'ed on the guide track to hold the window at a selected elevated position. To permit lowering of the window, the pawl is disengageable from the ratchet teeth through a handle mounted lever accessible at the inner panel of the vehicle door.

Other objects, advantages and features of construction of the present invention will be made more apparent as the description proceeds, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a vehicle body and a vehicle doo-r hinged thereto incorporating the window regulator mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged elevation of a portion of FIG. 1 illustrating in greater detail the relationship of the carriage device to the guide track comprising a part of the window regulator mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially on the line 33 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view in part sectional taken from a position just forward of the guide track; and

FIG. 5 is a front elevation of FIG. 3.

In the drawings there is illustrated, by way of example, a preferred embodiment of the present window regulator mechanism, generally designated 11, as applied to the door 12 of a vehicle body 13. The door 12 is of relatively thin construction, as would be found on a sports car body or other small size vehicle of the type to be found in European countries. This means that the door has little frame depth between the outer skin or panel 14 and the inner panel 15 (see FIG. 3). The thin ness of the door almost precludes the use of a conventional gear sector window regulator mechanism, whether 3,264,032 Patented August 2, 1966 it be hand crank driven or power operated, for raising and lowering the window. Further, in economy compact vehicles the conventional window regulator becomes an item of considerable relative expense. The regulator mechanism 11 of the present invention is compatible with such thin wall door structures and has a simplicity of construction favoring low manufacturing and installation costs.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the window panel 16 is illustrated as having substantially parallel upper and lower edges 17 and 18, a slightly rearwardly inclined rear edge 19 and a rather sharply inclined front or leading edge 21. The sharply inclined leading edge 21 is required to accommodate the slope of the vehicle body A pillar, a portion 22 of which is visible in FIG. 1. The window panel 16 may be outwardly bowed or curved from top to bottom. The rear edge 19 is adapted to be guided during the up and down movements of the window panel in a guide channel 23 supported by suitable brackets or the like (not visible), within the door structure.

The main structure for guiding the window during its up and down movements comprises an upstanding guide track 24 which is located substantially centrally of the door. The guide track 24 is welded or bolted in place at its lower end to the lower frame member 25 of the door and at its upper end to the inner panel transverse support 26. When used with a curved or bowed window panel, the guide track 24 may have a complementary curvature or bow. The guide track 24 is spanned by a carriage device, generally designated 27.

The carriage device 27 comprises an elongated plate 28 having a longitudinally extending recess 29 extending inwardly from the face 31 thereof. The width of the recess 29 is slightly greater than the width of the guide track 24, as best seen in FIG. 3. The side edges of the guide track 24 are provided with grooves 32 that extend the length of the guide track. The plate 28 has grooves 33 in the side walls of its recess 29 which oppose the grooves 32 of the guide track walls. Journalled in the grooves 33 in the plate member 28 are rollers 34 which may be made of nylon or other suitable material. There are two pairs of these rollers so that the guide track is engaged in its grooves 32 on each side by rollers carried at the upper and lower ends of the plate member 28. The relationship of the rollers 34 and the grooves 32 is such as to prevent lateral disengagement of the carriage device 27 from the guide track 24. The vertical distance between the rollers and the normal clearance between the guide track 24 and the guide track receiving recess 29 in the plate 28 are such any longitudinal bow in the track will not cause interference as the carriage device travels up and down the track.

The lower edge of the window frame is attached to the carriage device in any convenient manner.

It is, of course, necessary to provide some form of detent means so that the window can be held in any selected elevated position from its lowermost position to a fully raised position. It will be noted that the guide track 24 has a longitudinally extending slot 35 therein. Mounted at one longitudinal edge of this slot 35 is a serrated or ratchet toothed member 36 which extends from substantially one end to the other of the guide track 24. The ratchet toothed member 36 is held in place in the slot 35 by means of screws 37 which are threaded into holes in transversely extending ribs 38 which extend laterally across the slot at a depth sufiicient not to interfere with movement of a detent means 39 carried by the carriage device 27.

As best seen in FIG. 4, the detent means 39 is a simple detent or -pawl adapted to engage the ratchet teeth 41 of the ratchet member 36. The ratchet teeth 41 are stepped so that movement of the carriage device 227 along the guide track 24 in an upward direction is not restrained, the detent or pawl 3-9 merely camming from one ratchet tooth to the next as the window is moved upwardly. 'I he detent or pawl 39 is, however, spring loaded so that it is always urged toward the ratchet teeth and will engage the holding surface of one of the ratchet teeth thereby preventing downward movement of the window unless manually disengaged.

The spring loading of the detent or pawl 39 is accomplished through a handle device 42 which must be actuated to move the detent pawl 39 out of engagement with the ratchet teeth 4-1 before the window panel may be lowered. As best seen in FIG. 3, the detent or pawl 39 is mounted on a shaft 43 journalled in a tubular member 44 carried on a plate 45 which is adapted to be bolted to the front face of the carriage device plate 28. The tubular member is adapted to project through a vertical slot 46 in the inner door panel 15.

Integral with the tube 44 is a hollow handle 47 which extends at a right angle to the axis of rotation of the shaft 43. Housed within the handle 47 and coupled to the shaft 43 is a lever 48 which is yieldably held against retraction into the handle 47 by a compression spring 49.

Disengagement of the detent or pawl 39 from the ratchet teeth 41 requires movement of the detent or pawl in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIGS. 4 and 5. This is achieved by forcing the lever 48 into the handle 47 as may readily be done by a squeezing action.

It will be understood that the weight of the window must be manually supported through the handle 47, during its raising and lowering movements. It will be understood that suitable counterbalance spring means may be provided, but such counterb'alancing means would not alter or affect the window regulator as exemplified here- One additional advantage of the construction and arrangement embodying the present invention is that the guide track 24 does not have to be positioned in a true vertical direction. It may be inclined, using the plane of the glass as a reference, in a fore or aft direction relative to this plane. As illustrated, it is slightly rearwardly inclined so that the movement of the carriage device up and down the guide track will substantially parallel the channel 23 and the movement of the rear edge of the Window therein. For this reason, the plate 28 is not a true rectangle but is a parallelogram with the upper and lower edges paralleling the bot-tom frame member attached to the glass and the side edges paralleling the longitudinal axis of the guide track.

The simple window positioning device embodying the present invention is thus able to accommodate glass having a slight degree of curvature and is readily adaptable to construction and arrangements in which it is desired to have the glass moved upwardly and rearwardly in substantially the plane of the glass from its lowered position within the door to its raised position.

It will be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the exact construction shown and described, but that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a vehicle body structure having a window opening and a window well therebeneath,

a window panel,

and window positioning means for holding said window panel in partially or fully raised position in said window opening, said window positioning means comprising:

an elongated upstanding guide track within said window well,

said guide track having longitudinally extending bearing means receiving grooves in the sides thereof, a carriage means attached to said window panel and spanning said guide track for movemen therealong, bearing means on said carriage means and engaged with said guide track grooves retaining said carriage means against lateral displacement from said guide track, longitudinally extending ratchet means on said guide track, detent means on said carriage means engageable with said ratchet means to hold said carriage means and thereby said window panel against movement in window opening direction, and detent operating means on said carriage means for disengaging said detent means from said ratchet means to permit lowering movement of said window panel. 2. In a vehicle body structure according to claim 1, said detent means comprising a pawl carried on one end of a shaft journalled on said carriage means, said detent operating means comprising a lever fixed to the other end of said shaft,

said lever being retractable into a hollow handle carried on said carriage means,

and spring means compressible between a wall of said hollow handle and said lever urging said lever in nonretracted direction and said pawl in ratchet means engaging direction.

3. In a vehicle body structure having an outer panel and an inner panel forming a window well therebetween,

a window panel,

and window positioning means for holding said window panel in partially or fully raised positions out of said window well,

said window positioning means comprising:

an elongated upstanding guide track positioned between said outer and inner panels, said guide track having longitudinally extended bearing means receiving grooves in the side thereof,

a carriage means attached to the lower edge of said window panel and spanning said guide track for movement therealong,

said carriage means having bearing means thereon received in said guide track grooves, said bearing means and grooves coact'i-ng as said carriage means is moved along said guide track to retain the carriage means against lateral disengagement from said guide track,

longitudinally extending ratchet means on said guide track,

detent means on said carriage means engageable with said ratchet means to hold said carriage means and thereby said window panel against movement into said window well,

and detent operating means on said carriage means projecting through an elongated slot in said inner panel operable to disengage said detent means from said ratchet means to permit movement of said window panel into said well.

4. In a vehicle body structure according to claim 3,

said detent means comprising a pawl carried on one end of a shaft journalled on said carriage means,

said detent operating means comprising a lever fixed to the other end of said shaft,

said lever being retractable into a hollow handle car- I lied on said carriage means,

and spring means compressible between a wall of said hollow handle and said lever urging said lever in nonretracted direction and said pawl in ratchet means engaging direction.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,757,513 5/ 1930 Chafiee 268-122 2,207,772 7/ 1940 Axe 18972 FOREIGN PATENTS 515,295 2/ 1955 Italy.

References Cited by the Applicant UNITED STATES PATENTS Bourke. Eastharn. Broadhurst et a1. Nicholson. Young. 

1. IN A VEHICLE BODY STRUCTURE HAVING A WINDOW OPENING AND A WINDOW WELL THEREBENEATH, A WINDOW PANEL, AND WINDOW POSITIONING MEANS FOR HOLDING SAID WINDOW PANEL IN PARTIALLY OR FULLY RAISED POSITION IN SAID WINDOW OPENING, SAID WINDOW POSITIONING MEANS COMPRISING; AN ELONGATED UPSTANDING GUIDE TRACK WITHIN SAID WINDOW WELL, SAID GUIDE TRACK HAVING LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING BEARING MEANS RECEIVING GROOVES IN THE SIDES THEREOF, A CARRIAGE MEANS ATTACHED TO SAID WINDOW PANEL AND SPANNING SAID GUIDE TRACK FOR MOVEMENT THEREALONG, BEARING MEANS ON SAID CARRIAGE MEANS AND ENGAGED WITH SAID GUIDE TRACK GROOVES RETAINING SAID CARRIAGE MEANS AGAINST LATERAL DISPLACEMENT FROM SAID GUIDE TRACK, LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING RATCHET MEANS ON SAID GUIDE TRACK, DETENT MEANS ON SAID CARRIAGE MEANS ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID RATCHET MEANS TO HOLD SAID CARRIAGE MEANS AND THEREBY SAID WINDOW PANEL AGAINST MOVEMENT IN WINDOW OPENING DIRECTION, AND DETENT OPERATING MEANS ON SAID CARRIAGE MEANS FOR DISENGAGING SAID DETENT MEANS FROM SAID RATCHET MEANS TO PERMIT LOWERING MOVEMENT OF SAID WINDOW PANEL. 